O tempora – Page 2

O tempora: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

12/07/2023 12/07/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

I think, none of the other BioWare games had the impact on gaming as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic had. Originally released in 2003 on Xbox, it was the culmination of everything the company did up until that point, but streamlined (in the best possible way) for consoles and due to that (and the Star Wars setting) it managed to cover an audience so huge no “western” RPG covered before. It kickstarted the rise in popularity of morality systems, romance options, “home bases” with companions to choose from… All of it existed in games before, but KotOR became a template for lots of games to follow. All while also being, arguably, the least controversial and most beloved Star Wars product from the whole prequel period of the franchise.

I played this game a lot back in the day, but after the sequel (which I loved so much more), I revisited it less and less and the last time I’ve played it was more than 15 years ago. Now that the game is turning 20, I’ve decided to finally revisit it and see how it fares.

O tempora: Aliens versus Predator 2

07/07/2023 07/07/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

When talking about No one Lives Forever 1 and 2, I mentioned that apart from those two, there was another Monolith Productions classic that cannot be purchased digitally – Aliens versus Predator 2. Released between NOLF 1 and 2, this game was my personal favorite of the three and I replayed it a lot. I haven’t done it in a long while, though, and after replaying the NOLF games I was a bit worried about being disappointed. But I wasn’t.

O tempora: No One Lives Forever 1 and 2

27/06/2023 27/06/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Ah, Monolith Productions at their heyday… Not that their releases were consistently great or popular, but they’ve made some fantastic classics, most of which were powered by their own engine that was first developed for Microsoft to showcase the power of DirectX. Even though the usage of that engine began with the dreadful Blood 2 that no one should ever play, the first half of the 00s started an almost perfect set of games using that engine: The Operative: No One Lives Forever, Aliens Versus Predator 2, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way, Tron 2.0, F.E.A.R., Condemned: Criminal Origins were all instant classics and are still beloved and remembered by many. Three of these six titles, however, are not available anywhere digitally.

I used to love NOLF. They were among the very first games I played on my own PC back in the day and I’ve replayed them several times since. But the last revisit happened a very very long time ago – I don’t even remember when. So I decided that it was a good time to finally remember why people have such fond memories about these.

O tempora: Persona 3 Portable

16/06/2023 16/06/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Persona 3 FES was my first experience with the Persona sub-series of Megami Tensei franchise. I’ve started playing it about 14 years ago or so, after Persona 4 was already out and Persona 3 Portable was about to get released on PSP. And although I was enjoying its inventive mix of a life sim and tactical RPG, enhanced by a fantastic soundtrack and really stylish visuals, I got stuck on one part of the game and due to how slow (even by the standards of that time) loading was on PS2, I gave up. Later on the same thing happened with Persona 4 and it stayed that way until 2020 when an enhanced version of the latter, called Persona 4 Golden, did get remastered for PC. Despite being far longer than I’d like (especially since I tend to play jRPGs for stories rather then mechanics), playing the game was very enjoyable and I was hoping the other parts of the franchise would get ported as well. Fast forward 3 more years and we have both Persona 5 Royal (which I have just started playing) and Persona 3 Portable available on PC, so I could finally finish that playthrough I’ve started. Kinda… Because Portable version is quite a bit different with mixed results.

O tempora: Max Payne & Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

25/05/2023 07/12/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

I absolutely loved Max Payne when I first played it. It felt unlike any other action game out there and for years remained my golden standard for how an action game should be. It wasn’t without flaws, but it’s fantastic pace, exciting action and shockingly good storytelling far outweighed them in my eyes. Then there was also a sequel that I admired and respected for its even bigger focus on storytelling and some refinements to the gameplay mechanics. But I also didn’t enjoy the game as much. It has been a while, however, since I’ve played any of them and I wanted to see what my opinion on these classics would be today, especially with a remake announced.

In love with: Live A Live (2022)

20/05/2023 20/05/2023

Live a Live (stylized as LIVE A ƎVI⅃) has been a project I’ve heard a lot throughout the years. It was a jRPG from Square released in 1994 – that’s the same year as Final Fantasy VI, a year after Secret of Mana and a year before Chrono Trigger. But, just as Seiken Densetsu 3 (later officially and wonderfully remade under the title Trials of Mana), it was originally a Japanese-only title, so a huge amount of international audience only heard about it without good means to experience it for themselves. The concept for the game sounded wild – several unrelated independent stories with unique setting and gameplay mechanics in one package. All produced by Square at the top of their game and with the soundtrack from Yoko Shimomura, who’s soundtracks for Super Mario RPG and Parasite Eve would become much beloved just a couple of years later.

Unexpectedly, last year a “HD-2D” remake of the title was announced, first exclusively for Switch and now available on more platforms including PC, so I could finally experience this unbelievably sounding title for myself. And it’s genuinely hard to put into words just how surprising the experience was.

O tempora: Silent Hill 2 (with Enhanced Edition mod)

15/05/2023 01/07/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Continuing on with the classic Silent Hill titles, it’s time to talk about the highly revered sequel. Silent Hill 2 was quite a shocker when it was originally released, it took many people by surprise. And it is also the game that established the idea that Silent Hill games are first and foremost story-driven games simply because of how strong the story was and how many other games and also later “western-made” titles in the franchise attempted to copy it. For how much respect and admiration I have for this game… I also don’t particularly love playing it. It was the case when I first experienced it on PC in 2003 and even today, in its arguably best form with the Enhanced Edition mod I will also talk about, I still didn’t really love the act of playing this game. But is it still worth experiencing? Absolutely.

O tempora: Silent Hill

10/05/2023 10/05/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

There are several games and franchises that I’ve replayed and continue replaying regularly for decades now. And because of that, I didn’t even consider them for my retrospective reviews, just because of how intimately I know them and how “obvious” it is that they did stand the test of time. But perhaps it’s time to change that. To attempt to take a fresh look at these titles and play them as if this is my first experience with them, re-assessing what I think about them. I’ll start with Silent Hill.

Back in the late 90s Capcom blew everyone’s mind with what they named “survival horror” and after a few years of delay, many “clones” have followed. Konami wanted a piece of that action too, which led to the creation of a title that managed to both feel like a continuation of ideas from Resident Evil, while also being quite innovative in many other ways. And, according to the pirate copy cover, it was “more awesome than Resident Evil 2”. That cover was quite correct.

O tempora: Diablo II: Resurrected

18/04/2023 18/04/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Okay, confession time. People love Diablo II. For many it has been THE Diablo game to play and it has been extremely influential, canonizing a lot of concepts that are still in use today. But I never liked it much. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve finished Lord of Destruction before – the expansion pack for the game, though I definitely remember finishing the Act IV. But I did respect the game and, given how much praise this title has always received, always planned to revisit it. Now that a genuinely fantastic remaster Diablo II: Resurrected is available and I’ve finished replaying the original Diablo with its expansion, I went in and played the sequel too. And finally enjoyed it.

O tempora: Diablo (+Hellfire)

13/04/2023 13/04/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Can you believe that it’s been more than 26 years since the release of Diablo? So weird to think about it. I mean, it wasn’t the first real-time RPG or the first game to be an action RPG. But it became what defined action RPG for the western market, a mix of ideas from roguelikes, lots of loot and simple but engaging dungeon crawling, solo or in multiplayer. And while I understand why people always love the second game the most – to me, the original game has always meant more.

That said – I actually only finished it once before. And I’m pretty sure it was on the PlayStation port too. I’ve never played the often forgotten Hellfire expansion either, so I’ve been meaning to replay the game for quite a while now.